Things to watch (2006 RL) + (maint questions)

[Taipans]

I am at 51k on my 2006 RL, I just bought the vehicle a few weeks ago as my old car would of cost way to much to keep running. I thought it was a fairly good car, looked nice and somewhat out of the ordinary. Had a Honda Engine and tranny inside, and it was AWD. From trolling these forums though a bunch of my excitment has been lost. The AWD seems to be pointless, the car seems to have a ton of issues and just today smoke / fog / vapor started to pour out of my AC vents!

I am going to be stuck with my Vue RL for a long time, and would like to keep it running the best I can. Can anyone give me some heads up on things to have checked out and possibly some common issues that crop up around the 60k marker?

I just want to be prepared and do whatever I can to make it last as long as possible. Since 60k is coming around the corner I figured I should at least get the tranny and cooling system flushed!

Thanks for the advice!

[FGCA_XRL]

I recommend getting rid of the seats and center console. You should send them to me.

j/k. Not really, send them to me.

100k is a pretty big service, timing belt water pump, and valve adjustment. Other than that they're typically pretty good up until then. The front strut bushings wear out every so often, and your rotors will warp if you stop a little too fast.

Don't let the trolls here ruin your fun. It's a great vehicle if you know what you're going to use it for. It's not an offroad or snow kinda AWD, it's a heavy rains kinda AWD. It won't let you launch super hard like a full-time AWD, so you kinda have to soft launch it for the best speed. Most of the people here have regular Vues and do not enjoy the sport aspect of the Redline (nor do they understand how vastly different it is).

Go out there and find some unsuspecting fool to stomp out and it'll make you feel better. Tonight my gf and I were coming home and there was a Sentra SE-R Spec V with HIDs and your averge mods that was next to us. We got a red light on an empty stretch of road and my gf said to smoke him. So I did. He didn't have a chance. Just go out there and have some fun with it, you've got the fastest, most fun SUV you can get for under $17k (except a stripper TBSS) and you get substantially better fuel economy than the few SUVs that are faster than you.

BTW: make sure to de-bong it, it makes them sound much nicer. And post up some pictures of your new ride!

[Taipans]

I noticed many troll type posts just plain dogging everything about the VUE. It got me fairly worried since this is a forum that seems to be for fans more then people moaning all the time. But of course some of it seems to hold true like the AWD for instance. I don't however plan to take it off-road, and even though we get some nasty winter weather its not for extended periods. So I will just deal with it. :)

I do like the performance though, I wouldn't mind doing some mods to it but again reading around seems nothing does much to help. What does "Debong" mean exactly, is that removing the air box?

I might as well ask another question, I noticed considerable drag on the drive system when letting up on the gas. Going downhill it doesn't seem to have that run away acceleration cars do so I was hoping this was normal and because it does have an AWD setup, even though it wont kick in until the front slips?

I posted this on another general auto forum and someone said it was normal for AWD's to feel like that, but at the time I didn't know the VUE's AWD system was never engaged!

[froggy81500]

Good idea is to check at the NHTSA website. There you can look you TSB's, recalls, complaints, etc. Very good source of info and not a bad idea to look there when considering a used car, or even a new car that has had a few model years to have some history.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/

[Taipans]

Thanks for the link, I found 41 results for an 2006 Vue. Everything from drivetrain to suspension issues. :dizzy:

I feel more empowered now! But... also more paranoid! :)

[froggy81500]

Thanks for the link, I found 41 results for an 2006 Vue. Everything from drivetrain to suspension issues. :dizzy:

I feel more empowered now! But... also more paranoid! :)


Don't limit your searching to just your model year. Try looking at the previous model years for a history of issues. For instance, I had a 2001 Dodge that developed a problem with the oil light. It turned out to be nothing serious, just a bad pressure switch. Upon investigating the TSB's, I found that Dodge had issued a TSB for the exact problem, but only for the 98 and 99 model years. As it turned out, all years of that particular vehicle were prone to the same oil light issue.

[FGCA_XRL]

De-bonging refers to taking this ugly piece of plastic that sits under the air box off. It's a resonator and silences the intake. When you take it off your Vue will sound angry when you give it the fun pedal.

You have to remember the the Vue has the aerodynamics of a brick. It doesn't really slide the the air, it more of bashes through it. I'd say the difference in aerodynamics and weight are causing the feeling you're getting.

You can do a relatively decent amount of things to them, but it's difficult. There is a lot of potential for it has the same block used in most v6 Hondas. It doesn't seem out of the question to be able to bore it out to be like the MDX 3.7L. The main bottleneck is the lack of any kind of tuning for the ECU. So you're trapped in top speed and we lose tons of power due to a poor factory tune. If there was a decent way to tune the engine I think 300 hp at the crank would be very feasible, and probably wouldn't require very many mods.

[Vue6]

...Not to steal the post but ,it did feel good when the other day I romped on my 06' redline when a guy in a nice 90's impala SS was cutting people off and Tried to do the same to me ,I didn't let him , he couldn't pull me at all , felt good to stay ahead of him.Other than that , I've had wheel bearings replaced on my RL along with 1 rear shock, also have done the brakes/rotors at 32,000 miles, also just starting to feel trans lugging at lower speeds ,Otherwise a great vehicle for the money, DC